The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of grapevine botanically known as Vitis vinifera and hereinafter referred to as grapevine named ‘SV28-100-849’. As used herein, ‘grapevine’ refers to all plant parts including, vines, canes, tendrils, leaves, fruit and roots of ‘SV28-100-849’. Grapevine named ‘SV28-100-849’ is the result of an effort to produce an early ripening, red, seedless table grape with fruit characteristics superior to currently available red skinned grape cultivar ‘Flame Seedless’ (unpatented). This new cultivar originated from a cross conducted in May 2007 near McFarland, Calif. between pistillate grapevine plant selection ‘SV18-9-1’ (unpatented) and pollen parent ‘Princess’ (unpatented). Resultant ovules from the cross were harvested 42 days after pollination and cultured on ‘McCown's Woody Plant Medium’ at a temperature of 22° C. for twelve weeks. Subsequently, the resultant embryonic plants were cultured in the same medium in the laboratory under twelve hours of light from standard fluorescent lamps at 26.4° C. The seedlings from this effort were transplanted to the greenhouse in October of 2007 and grown in the greenhouse at 26.4° C. with 12 hours' illumination under high pressure sodium vapor lamps. The seedling population of 960 plants was planted in the field in the spring of 2008 near Delano, Calif. The new grapevine was selected from this seedling population on Jul. 13, 2010. It was then propagated by cuttings and bench grafted to ‘Freedom’ (unpatented) rootstock in 2011. The present invention has been found to retain its distinctive characteristics through two successive asexual propagations.
Grapevine named ‘SV28-100-849’ differs from the female parent grapevine ‘SV18-9-1’ (unpatented) in that grapevine named ‘SV28-100-849’ has ellipsoidal shaped, red skinned, seedless berries and flowers with functional pollen, whereas the female parent grapevine ‘SV18-9-1’ (unpatented) has spherical shaped, red skinned berries with partially lignified seed traces and flowers that are pistillate.
Grapevine named ‘SV28-100-849’ differs from its male parent ‘Princess’ (unpatented) in that grapevine named ‘SV28-100-849’ has red skinned berries which keep very well for extended periods in cold storage, whereas the male parent ‘Princess’ (unpatented) has oblong shaped, yellow berries that brown internally while in cold storage.
Grapevine named ‘SV28-100-849’ differs from the commercial cultivar ‘Flame Seedless’ (unpatented) in that grapevine named ‘SV28-100-849’ has ellipsoidal shaped, red skinned berries which do not require exogenous ethephon application to achieve full color in the southern San Joaquin Valley. Commercial cultivar ‘Flame Seedless’ (unpatented) has spherical shaped red skinned berries which do require application of ethephon to achieve full color in the southern San Joaquin Valley. The berries of grapevine named ‘SV28-100-849’ have a superior eating quality and larger berries at harvest after standard vineyard practices of application of exogenous gibberellic acid and girdling of the vine trunks as compared to commercial cultivar ‘Flame Seedless’ (unpatented). Additionally, grapevine named ‘SV28-100-849’ has well-sealed berries tips with no tendency to crack whereas commercial cultivar ‘Flame Seedless’ (unpatented) has a pronounced stigmatic scar causing berry splitting in some years.
Grapevine named ‘SV28-100-849’ is most similar to Sheegene-12 (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 20,252) which ripens about the same time as the extant cultivar. Grapevine named ‘SV-100-849’ may be distinguished from ‘Sheegene-12’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 20,252) by its greater fruitfulness, generally two clusters per shoot versus 1 cluster per shoot for ‘Sheegene-12’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 20,252) and by its slightly darker red fruit color.